Why everything takes twice as long, and is twice as expensive.

I watched a fascinating talk at Stanford last week, by the CEO of a start-up company called Strivr which is using virtual reality (hence the last two letters of its name) to train football players when they’re not actually on the field.

Players wear VR goggles and are suddenly in the midst of a game.

Apparently the effect is uncannily realistic, and Strivr is certainly doing good business, by all accounts.

One big takeaway for me was the CEO’s remark that in business everything always takes twice as long as you think it will take, and costs twice as much.

Funnily enough, I think something similar is going on with some concreting that’s happening near where I live.

I was told it would take about 10 days, but it’s now looking as if it will be more like three weeks.

And then of course there’s my book.

At the end of January I giddily said I’d have it published by the time February was out.

But of course, here we are – April – and I’m still not quite there.

(It’s getting pretty close now, though. I received the third proof yesterday, and once it’s been thoroughly checked, we should be able to give it the green light any day now.)

It seems to me that this “always taking longer than you thought” thing seems to be pretty pervasive in life.

Perhaps it applies to recovery from low mood, too?

Years of tracking mine have shown me that the way down can sometimes be quick and sudden, but the process of getting back up again often takes more time than you’d like.

I don’t think you can force it, but you can probably gently encourage the transition by building in small “nudges” every day, which is one of the principles behind my book, of course.

Today’s tip then?

Accept that recovery will take its time, but also reassure yourself that change is just about inevitable.